WASHINGTON, D.C. – Combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) joined U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, along with her colleagues in demanding answers on the Department of Defense’s (DOD) efforts to politicize Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper that has long maintained editorial independence. The letter follows recent reporting on how Stars and Stripes job applicants have been asked to explain how they would advance the Administration’s policy priorities, and comments from the Pentagon’s top public affairs official on the Department’s plans to overhaul the newspaper.
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“We write to express our strong and unwavering support for the continued editorial independence of Stars and Stripes, a publication whose credibility rests on its ability to report freely and impartially on matters affecting the men and women of the United States Armed Forces,” wrote the Senators to Secretary Pete Hegseth. “…Any diminishing independence of Stars and Stripes is a blow to the public’s legitimate need for information and disrespectful to our military. The paper’s independence is essential to ensuring the American people understand what is happening in our armed forces, and to provide servicemembers with honest, credible reporting rather than filtered or politicized narratives.”
Stars and Stripes was founded in 1861, and Congress has long affirmed the newspaper’s independence.
The Senators continued, “Congress has been clear for decades that Stars and Stripes must be governed by First Amendment principles and insulated from political influence, regardless of which administration is in power. We urge you to immediately clarify that neither hiring practices nor editorial decisions at Stars and Stripes will be conditioned on ideological alignment or policy advocacy, and to reaffirm, publicly and unequivocally, the newspaper’s statutory independence.”
Along with Duckworth and Blumenthal, the letter was also joined by U.S. Senators Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Angus King (I-ME), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
The full text of the Senators’ letter is available below and on the Senator’s website:
Dear Secretary Hegseth,
We write to express our strong and unwavering support for the continued editorial independence of Stars and Stripes, a publication whose credibility rests on its ability to report freely and impartially on matters affecting the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. We are especially concerned about recent media reports that Stars and Stripes job applicants have been asked to explain how they would advance the President’s policy priorities, as well as recent comments made by the Pentagon’s top public affairs official that the Department plans to “refocus its [the newspaper’s] content away from woke distractions that syphon morale.” These developments represent a troubling departure from the First Amendment principles that have governed the newspaper since its inception in 1861.
Any diminishing independence of Stars and Stripes is a blow to the public’s legitimate need for information and disrespectful to our military. The paper’s independence is essential to ensuring the American people understand what is happening in our armed forces, and to provide servicemembers with honest, credible reporting rather than filtered or politicized narratives.
Congress has been clear for decades that Stars and Stripes must be governed by First Amendment principles and insulated from political influence, regardless of which administration is in power. We urge you to immediately clarify that neither hiring practices nor editorial decisions at Stars and Stripes will be conditioned on ideological alignment or policy advocacy, and to reaffirm, publicly and unequivocally, the newspaper’s statutory independence.
